[stopdog]

Was(is) therapy something you considered to be life or death for you?

the short answer: no.

the long answer: though it helps sometimes, (those sometimes being extremely rare), I often think I'm beyond any sort of help

the reality is that their are too many issues in my life, and that as soon as something's resolved their's 50 more things to deal with.

could I live without it?

on one hand I never got what I wanted out of it, on the other I don't have a very big support network. it's difficult

[ArtleyWilkins]

Yes, without therapy and psychiatric care, I would be dead now.

I actually said no, believe it or not. Although at times my attachment to ex-T came close to making it feel life or death. Now ex-pdoc? That's a different story. Without him (and the psych meds he prescribed), I likely would not be here today.

[Elio]

For this round, at the beginning and probably for the first year, yes, I believe I would not be here today without it. Now, I believe I'm more in the camp of surviving life, though I hope therapy will get me to the place where I'm living life the majority of the time. I don't think it is needed for me to biologically stay alive. But, what's the point of that if all you are doing is going through the motions and counting down the days until you die? Most days, I'm a step above that now and there are even days where I feel/think I don't want to die (maybe moments where I get to "I want to live"). Where as before the event that resulted me in going to therapy, I was simply going through the motions counting down the days until I died with some days wishing that would come sooner than later.

[MoxieDoxie]

Yes without therapy I would have attempted suicide, botched it, and I would be a vegetable right now.

[Lemoncake]

It might sound dramatic but before I met R,I didn’t think I would live beyond 26.

[ChickenNoodleSoup]

Yes, if I weren't in therapy, I don't think I'd currently be alive and if I stopped going, I think I'd quickly deteriorate.

[Xynesthesia2]

Mostly curiosity. I've had two potentially life-threatening mental health issues at different points of my life, an eating disorder when I was very young (it did not get very severe though) and a substance addiction much later (which was severe and could definitely have killed me). I did not use any professional help to beat the eating disorder and tried therapy, for the first time, in a period when I was actually doing very well (it got worse later for a while. I got curious about therapy and what it could potentially achieve while engaging in an addiction recovery community, where many people talked about their experiences with it and there were some therapist or ex-therapist members. I definitely did not expect it to save my life, it was more a very open "what will happen" kind of thing. Some of the curiosity was also coming from my profession in mental health research, where I encountered and worked with many Ts and psychiatrists. It definitely did not achieve anything even close to life saving, actually had a very nasty substance relapse while being in therapy and, I think, my first T's approach could have made it worse if I let it.

I don't know if I could ever name one thing that I would consider life or death regarding any phase of my mental health, typically just one thing does not have very significant effects on me and better to use a bunch of things to achieve change.

I've always gotten by on my own (even as a child) and can't even imagine therapy being life or death for me. I use it for self-actualization.

[Echos Myron redux]

It felt it when I first left T1. I felt like I couldn't cope with the pain of leaving him without support. Now it's not a matter of life and death anymore, but it's a really, really important part of how I take care of myself. Life-enriching rather than life-saving.

[koru_kiwi]

Originally Posted by ArtieSwimsOn

I actually said no, believe it or not. Although at times my attachment to ex-T came close to making it feel life or death. .

For me it was never the therapy that felt like a life or death situation, but like Artie mentioned, it was the attachment with my ex-T that brought out intense emotions that made the relationship feel as if it were a matter of life or death.

[feralkittymom]

Now, no, not at all. Formerly, IDK. I was in a bad way, but largely functional. But I felt I'd run out of other options, so trying therapy was the only thing left.

[precaryous]

Sometimes.

[sophiebunny]

Without good psychiatric care and a trained trauma therapist I would either not be alive or I'd be institutionalized with my daughter raised in foster care.

[Taylor27]

Yes without therapy i would not be here

[AllHeart]

I never really thought of therapy as a life or death situation yet without it I would certainly be dead. Ironically, the last time I was seriously suicidal was when my former ther-a-friend hung me out to dry. Not sure I would still be here if not for the therapist who helped me thru that epic nightmare.

[Amyjay]

I put yes. I saw my very first therapist for life-threatening anorexia nervosa as a 14 year old. Friends and family telling me to "just eat" didn't cut it. I don't believe I would have been able to overcome the ED without psychological help.

[daisydid]

When I was a teenager, I was certainly going to kill myself had it not been for therapy. Though I don't want to admit it, I'm in a similar place now.

[BudFox]

No.

But the stress from therapy might have killed me eventually if i'd kept at it.

As someone said, your doctor is the person in your life most likely to kill you. For me therapist is next on the list.

[Spirit of Trees]

Maybe, because I was at the point where I was having pretty serious suicidal ideation. Seeing a T definitely helped me get to a more stable place. Without intervention, I don't know for sure whether I would've attempted, but I likely would've self-harmed. But my quality of life would certainly have been much worse.

[tomatenoir]

When I was severely depressed as a teenager, yes. I think I might have tried to hurt myself if my therapist hadn't been there.

My last round of therapy as an adult? No. I saw it as a tool rather than a lifejacket. I wouldn't use therapy for anything but to improve my life, at this stage. A lot would need to happen for me to feel like it was lifesaving.

[SlumberKitty]

I put sometimes. I think this was more true with former T, as I was more seriously messed up then than I am now (believe it or not) and I probably would have attempted sui more often than I did had I not been in therapy and one of those times might have took. Now I think it's more of a tool but if I ever got to that point again where I was SUI all the time, then I would probably see therapy as more life or death again. But there was definitely a time where I was choosing life by choosing therapy. HUGS Kit

[Salmon77]

I chose "other"—I think it is like self care, like exercise, but I also think self care is critical. I wouldn't die immediately if I didn't exercise, but it sure improves my life and I think I'll live longer and be happier because of it. Same for therapy. I don't think I'll always be in therapy in the same way that I'll probably always exercise, though, because the way of thinking and feeling I learn through therapy will become something I do on my own.

[Rive1976]

I lol'd at the What you talking about Willis option 😂